Christmas in July
by KourtTears
Summary: Two oneshots I wrote for the LJ community xmas in eureka. Probably the only slash I will ever write. Nathan Stark/Jack Carter
1. Of Glass Walls, Red Buttons and Snow

**Title:** Of Glass Walls, Red Buttons, and Snow  
**Author:** K**ourtTears**  
**Rating:** PG-15  
**Word Count:** 3924  
**Spoilers:** This takes place during the Holiday season just after season two so all episodes are fair game. Only two episodes are alluded to though.  
**Summary:** Carter deals with crazy scientists, doomsday devices, and being trapped with Stark. And all before Christmas too. Poor Carter.  
**Author's Notes:** Written for **sheepfairy** at Livejournal's xmasinEureka challenge. I hope you enjoy it!

"This is your fault!"

Nathan Stark looked up from where he had been examining the floor. "What?"

Sheriff Jack Carter, angry that he was in this cage because of the man on the other side of the room and even angrier that said man was ignoring him, released some of that anger by kicking the wall. "I said, 'this is your fault'!"

"How is this my fault? You're the one who dragged me out here."

Carter gestured to the four glass walls and ceiling that made up their prison before he resumed pacing (5 steps up and 5 steps across) and replied, "You're the one who got us trapped! Besides you volunteered to come out here."

Stark turned back to his work before he replied, "No, I was examining the machine to ensure that it was no longer dangerous. How was I to know that Steve set up a fail-safe to make sure it couldn't be tampered with by anyone besides him? And you asked me to come out here to shut it off."

At this point in time in the argument Carter made a very good impression of a fish, "No, everything was fine until the end. You got the machine shut off. But then you just had to get curious. You just had to see exactly what the machine was made to do. It wasn't enough that it almost destroyed the whole town, no you had to start poking around and now we're both stuck in here on a Friday night! And I didn't ask you specifically, I told the scientists that I would need someone to come out here who could turn off the machine. You volunteered."

"Carter, the machine was shut down but that didn't mean it was completely safe. It is very poorly designed. I needed to check and make sure it wasn't going to cause anymore damage to Eureka. Besides it's not as if you had any plans."

Carter turned within the glass prison to look at all the machinery in the room. He took in the giant monitors, the keyboards, the gauges, the tubes running from one piece of the machine to the next and 

the little satellite dish that sat upon the big metal box that he assumed was the most important part of the device. Everything seemed to be well organized and well built, but really, what did he know about doomsday machines? Other than the fact that the citizens of Eureka seemed to produce at least five a year.

"Poorly designed?"

"Yes, Carter, poorly designed. Do you not see how the placement of the gauges is on the right side of the tubes? They should be on the left where they could get an accurate assessment of the pressure in the machine. Instead they are only reading the pressure of what is going into the machine."

"And that's not right?"

"No, why would you want to know the pressure of what's going in the machine? It wouldn't tell you if the machine was going to overload. That's why everything was messed up in the first place. I'll say this for Steve, he may be brilliant but he should not build his own machines."

Carter gave this a little thought, "Wait, so this isn't a doomsday device or anything?"

Stark gave him a surprised look, "What? No. From what I was able to pick up before we were trapped this machine was supposed to make snow."

"Snow? We're in Oregon and it's the middle of December. Why would Steve need to make snow?"

Start shook his head and moved to examine another portion of the floor. "Have you not seen the weather reports lately? It's not supposed to snow for at least three weeks."

Carter finally slid down of the walls to sit on the floor and sighed. "And this was enough of a reason for Steve to make his own snow machine?"

Stark chuckled as he continued his search of the floor, "Steve gets a little obsessed around Christmas time. He almost broke down last year when it rained instead of snowed on Christmas Eve. According to Steve it's not a perfect Christmas unless it's a White Christmas and he apparently found a way to make sure it's a perfect Christmas this year."

Carter liked snow as much as the next person, well maybe a bit more than the next person. Whenever he was a kid and it snowed he would spend hours and hours out in the freezing cold. His mom had always had hot chocolate waiting for him when he finally made it home. And his love for snow hadn't diminished just because he'd gotten older. Carter still loved the snow and after that dream he'd had a few days ago about 'playing' in the snow with Stark and then continuing that play inside with hot chocolate, well, Carter was fairly certain his love for the white fluffy stuff would never wan.

Even though he loved the stuff, Carter couldn't really understand how a 40 year old man's desire for a perfect Christmas could cause him to have a breakdown which prompted him to build a snow machine which had then nearly caused a new Eureka sized crater in Oregon. Deciding that he had seen people do much more desperate and dangerous things during the Holiday season in the 'normal' world (and never once had Jack Carter ever thought he would refer to Los Angles as normal) Carter was content to blame this near disaster on Holiday Hysteria and replied with a simple, "Oh."

Carter watched Stark work his way around the floor of their prison and realized that at some point Stark had gotten him off topic. The very important topic of laying blame for the predicament they found themselves in.

"This is your fault."

Stark sighed, "Are we back to that again? This is not my fault."

"We never left it, you just distracted me a bit and how do you figure all this is not your fault?" Carter said as he waved at the walls.

"I've already explained this: I needed to make sure it wouldn't damage Eureka anymore than it already had."

"And getting us locked in this glass cell accomplished this how?"

"I didn't expect Steve to have set up counter measures for people entering his lab without permission."

"But you still messed with the machine before Jo could brief us on what Steve had said."

"I didn't think it would do any harm."

"Stark, you pushed the red button. Nothing good ever happens when you push the red button. Ever."

"Carter, there are a lot of buttons that are red. Not all of them are going to cause problems."

"The problem wasn't that you pushed a red button. The problem is that you pressed the red button."

"And the difference is?"

"The difference is that the red button was big and red and it was set away from the other buttons. Why would anyone do that except to discourage people from pressing it?"

"Carter you've been watching too many movies. Things like that don't happen in real life."

"Really? Well prove me wrong. Give me one example of when nothing bad happened when someone pushed the red button at GD."

Stark was silent for several minutes as he again started searching the floor.

Carter smirked when no answer was forthcoming, "Well?"

Stark glared at him from the other side of the small box and replied, "I'm thinking."

Carter laughed and stretched out his legs, "Ha. I was right. Nothing good ever comes of pushing the red button."

Stark grumbled under his breath but didn't contradict the sheriff.

Carter smiled and continued, "So admit it, this is your fault."

Stark finished with his examination of the floor, sat down next to the same wall as Carter and stretched his legs out, "Yes, Carter I admit it, this is my fault."

Carter had a smug grin on his face before realizing that if Stark had stopped looking for –whatever it was he was looking for – then they were well and truly trapped.

"So, what were you looking for?"

"Something to get us out of this."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes Carter which is why we are still in here and I'm sitting next to you."

"Oh."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Stark had his eyes closed as if he were trying to imagine himself anywhere else and Carter stole glances of his fellow prisoner out of the corner of his eye. Why did he have to be trapped in here with Stark? And why today of all days, just three days after he had finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to Stark. To make matter worse SARAH had declared that the two of them would make a good couple. He really needed to remember that he couldn't really talk to himself at home since his house could hear everything inside her walls and SARAH always had an opinion.

"So, what do we do now?"

Stark opened one eye to study the nervous looking sheriff before replying, "We'll have to wait for someone to show up and get us out of here."

"Why don't we just call for back-up?"

Stark took his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Carter. "Because, Sheriff, this lab is underground and the walls are made of lead. There's no signal."

"Oh. So we're just supposed to wait then?"

"Yep."

"How long do you think?"

"Carter I'm a genius not a psychic. I have no idea how long it will take but look on the bright side; someone's bound to miss us eventually. Well, someone's bound to miss me anyway."

"Oh haha, very funny."

Carter could feel himself getting even more nervous. He didn't know how he was going to survive even an hour in this glass cage with Stark without doing something crazy. Like slamming Stark against the wall and finding out if the scientist was really as delicious as he looked.

"You okay Sheriff?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just don't like enclosed spaces."

At this Stark gave the sheriff a disbelieving look, "That didn't stop you when GD was falling down around our ears and you went and saved Fargo. Or when SARAH held us captive. Or the time—"

"Okay, I get it. Besides none of those count. I was trying to save Fargo so I wasn't really thinking about getting trapped. And the thing with SARAH was fine because I had access to food and air, at least, before BRAD showed up, and then we were trying to get out. I'm fine in enclosed spaces as long as I have something to distract myself with."

Carter really hoped Stark didn't remember the time last year when they had been trapped in that elevator along with Alison, Henry and Fargo. There had been less room then and absolutely nothing to do but at least he hadn't been alone with the man who, at the time, had just started to look kissable. Now, not only was he alone with the man but Carter definitely knew Stark looked kissable and Carter really wasn't sure how long he could hold out.

"So what you're saying is that if you had something to distract yourself with you would stop with the nervous twitching?"

"What nervous twitching?"

Stark used his right hand to lightly nudge Carter's leg which was rocking back and forth. "That nervous twitching."

Carter tried to ignore the jolt he felt when Nathan touched him. "Oh, sorry."

Was it him or was his voice just a little too high?

In trying to discreetly move a few inches away from his cellmate Carter completely missed the slightly devious grin on the other man's face.

"Carter, I've never known you to be so jumpy."

Carter tried to hold back the flush that was threatening to spread across his face and gave a weak smile, "Yeah, well, I've already said that I don't like enclosed spaces."

Carter breathed a sigh of relief when Stark, who was apparently satisfied with that answer, closed his eyes once again.

The two sat in silence for what seemed a ridiculously long amount of time. Carter was really wishing that he had enough will power to get up and pace or something but, as much as he struggled with it, he liked being close to Nathan. If he concentrated really hard he could feel the other man's body heat. At that thought Carter felt his nerves start to go haywire once again.

"Stop with the nervous twitching already."

Carter looked down to see his leg was moving again. He sighed, "I can't help it. I just really don't—"

"—like enclosed spaces, I know. You're starting to sound like a broken record Sheriff. If you don't stop twitching you're going to drive both of us crazy."

Carter gave a weak grin and replied, "Sorry, I'll try and keep the nervous twitching to a minimum."

Stark only gave him a nod and went back to staring at his eyelids, or calculating the PI to the nth power, or whatever it was that geniuses did when they were bored. Carter was feeling proud of himself. He hadn't done anything to embarrass himself yet and if he could just calm down then maybe he could get out of this situation with his dignity intact.

Everything seemed to be going fine for a few minutes until Carter stop concentrating on not moving and started thinking about the man sitting next to him. He didn't even notice he was moving until he felt a warm weight just above his knee. He looked down to see a hand holding his leg still. A hand that wasn't his. A hand that was currently causing tiny bolts of lightning to run through his veins.

"Um, Stark? What are you doing?"

"You were twitching again sheriff and it was beginning to get on my nerves."

"Oh, well I'm sorry. I'll do better in the future. You can let go now."

"I don't think so Sheriff. You've already proven that it's impossible for you to hold still so I'm going to have to do it for you to preserve my sanity."

Carter looked down at the hand again and followed attached arm to stare at the man who was currently testing his self-control. "Really, Stark, I promise that I won't make any more annoying movements while we're trapped in here."

Stark chuckled, "Sorry Carter but I don't believe you.'

"No really Stark it's fine. I'll be still."

Carter could feel his heartbeat speed up and his face start to flush. He just hoped Stark wouldn't notice.

"Carter? Are you alright? You're looking a little red."

Carter shook his head and tried not to squeak as he replied, "No, no, I'm fine…it's just a little hot in here."

"Are you sure? It feels fine to me."

Carter was so busy trying to control his heart rate that he didn't notice when Stark slowing started to rub his thumb back and forth. Until he looked down that is.

"Stark? What are you doing?"

"What, this? Nothing. Just trying to make sure you don't freak out."

Stark hadn't stopped his ministrations and Carter could practically see the sparks shooting off the contact point. "I'm, uh, fine Stark really. You can stop now."

"I don't know Sheriff. You're still really flushed and your heart is beating a mile a minute. Maybe you were right before. Maybe you do need a distraction."

Carter took in Stark's deeper than usual voice, the hand on his leg had moved a little bit higher, the look in Stark's eyes, and how he was leaning closer and put two and two together. He jumped up and practically ran to the other side of the cage. Unfortunately he came up with five.

"You planned this!"

"What?"

"You-you planned this! All of it." Carter gestured wildly to their cage and the room beyond.

"Carter, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes you do because you planned this. You're the one that volunteered to come with me when we discovered what was causing all the problems. You're the one who messed with machine after it was shutdown and you're the one that got us trapped. You planned all of this. God, you probably even planned the disaster in the first place!'

"Carter…" Stark growled warningly, but the sheriff was so caught up in his rant that he didn't realize he was playing with fire.

"The question is why would you go to all this trouble just to get me alone? If you wanted to jump me it's not like I would fight you…" Realizing what he had just admitted, a wide-eyed Carter stopped his ranting and turned to face away from the look on Stark's face.

"What was that Sheriff?" Carter could feel Stark stand up and start to move closer.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything. I think being trapped in a cage is finally getting to me." Jack refused to turn around but he knew that Nathan was less than an arm's length behind him.

"See, Sheriff I would believe you, but you are a terrible liar." Suddenly Jack found himself being turned and his back pressed into the wall. Jack refused to look Nathan in the eye. He found a point on Nathan's neck and fixed his gaze on it.

"I'm not lying." Jack said but his tone lacked any conviction. He kept his gaze on Nathan's neck. He was so close now that Jack could see the other man's pulse.

Nathan chuckled and the sound of it made Jack's heart beat just a little bit faster. "You are lying. Want to know how I know?"

Jack didn't say anything but he gulped when Nathan moved close enough that only an inch or two separated them.

"When you lie, your mouth twitches. Just a tiny little movement right here." Jack thought the world had frozen when Nathan's thumb brushed the corner of his mouth. He felt Nathan close the distance between them and he felt as well as heard Nathan continue talking. He wasn't really paying attention though because Nathan's thumb was now rubbing Jack's lower lip.

"Such a minuscule movement I doubt anyone else has caught on. It only took me a month to find it though because every time you're anywhere near me I can't take my eyes off you. Especially your lips, God you have gorgeous lips."

When Jack finally processed what had been said he looked up and caught his breath. Nathan's eyes gone almost completely black and they were fixated on Jack's mouth. Before Jack could stop himself he wet his lips, and in the process licked Nathan's thumb. Jack felt more than heard the other man growl and then Nathan's lips were on his.

The kiss was hot and heavy and totally in Nathan's control from the start. Soon Nathan's tongue was pushing between his lips demanding Jack participate. Jack came out of his shock to kiss his scientist back and finally found out what he tasted like.

The kiss quickly progressed into something more. Soon hands were clutching and kneading and they were both seeing fireworks. When they had run out of air Jack tore his lips away and pressed his forehead against Nathan's. Both men's breathing was harsh and neither of them made a move to unwind himself from the other.

"What…" Jack took a deep breath and finished, "what was that?"

He could feel it as Nathan chuckled. "That was a kiss, Carter. An absolutely amazing kiss."

Jack couldn't disagree. "Yeah, it was a…wow. But what I meant to ask was where did that come from?"

"Carter, I've been wanting to do that for months. I just wasn't sure how you would react until…"

"Until you had me trapped in a glass box?" Jack moved his head back just enough to look the other man in the eyes.

"No, being trapped in here just gave me the opportunity without having to worry you would run away."

Jack thought about this while trying to ignore how close Nathan was and how good he smelled. "If it wasn't this forced captivity then what made you finally jump me?"

Jack couldn't be certain but he thought Nathan might possibly be blushing. "Stark?"

"I made the decision to…jump you…three days ago."

"What happened three days — oh God, you were spying on me!"

Before Jack could get really worked up Nathan denied the accusation.

"No! I've never spied on you Carter. Never!"

Jack could tell Nathan was telling the truth and relaxed. "Then why did you decide to do something three days ago?"

"I checked my email on Tuesday and had a message from SARAH. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and it turned out to be a video clip of you ranting about me. I would never use anything in your house to spy on you Carter. I didn't think was anything wrong with using information that had been handed to me though."

"Oh. So you really did plan all this?"

"No, well not all of it. I didn't know Steve had built his machine but I did know that he was very paranoid and built booby traps in his labs to make sure no one could steal his ideas. I knew you were attracted to me, but I wasn't sure if you would ever do anything about it and I was sure you would run the other way if I ever told you I felt the same way so…"

"You locked us in a glass cage just to kiss me?"

"Actually I locked us in a glass cage so I could tell you that I was attracted to you but I wasn't sure how to approach the situation. Then you got angry and do you have any idea how good you look when you're angry? The kissing was kind of spontaneous."

Jack leaned his head back against the glass to think for a moment but Nathan was just so damn distracting that Jack decided that thinking could wait.

"Okay." With that Jack pulled Nathan into another kiss. He could feel Nathan's surprise but ignored it and began trying to coax Nathan into returning the kiss. When Nathan just stood there Jack pulled back.

"What's the problem?"

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?" Jack really just wanted to figure out exactly what it was that Nathan tasted like.

"Because I trapped you in here after learning something that you admitted in private."

Jack shrugged, "You already said you didn't spy on me and as for locking us up in here, well I'm kind of flattered. If you want me to get mad though I can do that later. Right now I just really wish you would shut up so we can get back to the amazing kissing."

When Jack pulled Nathan into another kiss he was delighted when the other man returned it. It took a while before Jack could identify what Nathan tasted like: cinnamon and snow.

It was long time before Nathan was coherent enough to get them out of their glass prison.

When the two men finally made it outside the lab and saw the snow, well it's safe to say that Jack's fantasy kept both men out in the cold until late that night.

Luckily, when they finally did make it back to Jack's house SARAH had hot chocolate and a fire waiting for them.


	2. Of Snowstorms and Backseat Drivers

**Title:** Of Snowstorms and Backseat Drivers  
**Author:** K**ourtTears**  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** No spoilers. Can be set anytime during the series.  
**Summary:** Sheriff Jack Carter has had to deal with broken bones, car wrecks and Eureka's polar bear club. Now he faces his greatest challenge of the day: surviving a car ride with Dr. Nathan Stark.  
**Author's Notes:** Written for **sheepfairy** at Livejournal's XmasinEureka challenge. _I couldn't decide between the two stories so you get both! Merry Christmas!_

"The speed limit through here is fifty-five you know."

"I'm the Sheriff, of course I know what the speed limit is."

"I just wanted to make sure since you aren't even doing half that."

"Stark I don't need a backseat driver. This is nerve-wracking enough."

'This' being the snowstorm that had descended on Eureka. There had been almost no warning before the storm hit. Carter was fairly certain he had ticked one of the scientists off and this was their way to get their revenge. Because what could be worse than a town of geniuses in the middle of a snowstorm?

Carter couldn't believe how reckless they were. They were supposed to be smart! He'd already been called to seven different residences since the storm had started four hours ago. He'd dealt with sled injuries, snowball injuries, and a group of scientists who had decided the best way to enjoy the snow and ice was to jump into the lake...naked. Carter, being from California (and sane), didn't see the appeal of jumping into sub-zero degree water to celebrate the first snow of the season. He didn't really care what they did though, as long as their kept their clothes on. The image of old Dr. Cale standing in the snow completely in the nude was going to haunt Carter for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately for the Sheriff, those were the easy ones. He and Jo had been called to over five car wrecks. No one had been seriously hurt but those calls always made Carter anxious. It might have had something to do with the fact that he had a sixteen year old daughter.

Everything Carter had dealt with that day had been manageable. Except for this. Jack had finally gotten everyone tucked (or caged in some cases) into their respective homes when the last call had come in. Jo had just walked out the door so it fell to Jack to answer this distress call. He had shown up at the sight of the wreck and groaned. Nathan Stark had been standing on the side of the road with his car in the ditch behind him. That was when Carter pulled out his mad scientists' revenge theory.

Stark had actually been civil and Carter was only insulted twice before Stark got around to asking for a ride home. Everything had been fine for the first few minutes. Then the storm had picked up and Carter 

was forced to drive very slowly to make sure he didn't run off the road.

Unfortunately, slowly was not how Stark wanted to get home.

"Carter you aren't even going fifteen miles per hour!"

"Stark, do you see the storm? Do you see how I have almost no visibility?"

"You're being melodramatic. It's not that bad."

Carter stared out at the storm before turning to look at Stark. "Are you completely insane? This is one of the worst storms Oregon has had in years."

Stark snorted, "The Weather Channel always over exaggerates these kinds of things."

"I didn't hear it from the Weather Channel; I heard it from one of the meteorologists from Global."

"Which one?"

"Dr. Cale."

"Dr. Cale? He almost never leaves his lab. Where did you see him?"

"At the lake."

"What was he doing there?"

"He's a member of the Polar Bear club."

"Aren't they the people that jump into a freezing cold lake on the first snow?"

"Yeah, but that's not even the half of it. They jump in naked."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Stark thought about this for a moment before responding, "You know, there are just some things eighty year old men shouldn't do."

Carter shuddered and nodded, "Tell me about it."

For a few minutes neither man said anything and Carter was just beginning to believe that he and Stark could actually be near each other without fighting. Then Stark opened his mouth.

"Carter, drive a little faster already!"

"No."

"You're being overly cautious."

"Says the man who ran his car into a ditch."

When Stark didn't respond, Carter hazarded a look in the scientist's direction. What he saw almost made him laugh.

"Stark, are you pouting?"

"I do not pout."

"Doesn't look that way to me."

Stark had his arms crossed over his chest and his lower lip was jutted out. Carter took another glance but quickly turned away when he caught himself staring.

Carter was relieved when Stark didn't reply and the rest of the drive was conducted in silence. Finally, after another excruciating fifteen minutes (in which Carter almost skidded off the road twice) they pulled up into Stark's driveway.

He put the car in park and waited to for Stark to get out. Surprisingly Nathan just sat there.

"Uh, Stark? This is your stop."

When Nathan didn't respond Carter turned to look at him.

"Stark—" He was cut off by Nathan's lips meeting his.

The kiss started off hot and soon Jack was pushing Nathan's mouth open and forcing his tongue to into the other man's mouth coaxing him to enter the game.

Nathan pulled away, too soon for Carter, and rested his forehead against Jack's. They were both still breathing heavily when Nathan spoke.

"Thanks for the ride Sheriff." Then he was out of the car and making his way towards his house.

Jack sat in shock long enough for Nathan to get inside. Jack sat there for another minute before making a decision. He pulled out his phone.

"Zoe, hey. Listen the roads are awful so I'm not going to be able to make it home tonight. Will you be okay with SARAH for tonight? Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. I'll be home tomorrow after Henry gets the roads clear. Love you too. Bye."

As soon as he hung up the phone, Jack turned off the car, opened the door and stepped out into the storm. He made his way up to the door and knocked. He had no intention of leaving until he had convinced Stark to finish what he had started.


End file.
